Birds of a Feather
by SilverMoonPhantom
Summary: [OC/SI] - Reincarnation can be fun. Sometimes it's more of a mixed-bag, with a lot more bug-eating than originally anticipated...but that's what you get, waking up as a bird. [DISCONTINUED - Rewritten and continued as 'Flock Together']
1. Chapter 1

Tricia opened her eyes, blinked, then opened her mouth the protest against the giant bird looming over her.

She flinched backward as the bird pushed downward, shoving its beak into her mouth (holy shit) and with it a slimy, sour piece of _something_.

!

Her throat convulsed, a deep, aching hunger rearing up with it. Without even realizing what was happening, she felt her mouth work to swallow the meat, gulping it down hastily.

She felt it sink heavily into her stomach, the hunger relenting just a bit. The enormous bird had sat quietly, watching her with one keen, black eye.

The shock of what had just happened was slow to settle in,

Much faster, was the realization that her body felt wrong .

Her body felt bloated, lopsided and tender. Her arms were too short, legs so thin and weak she could barely move them. The hunger quieted a bit more, and she fell quickly into unconsciousness.

The next time she awoke, her body felt… less sore. A bit less soft, but just as lopsided. She was able to drag her oversized head to look around, blinking against the way her vision swam. The enormous, disgustingly high-definition body of a baby bird leaned against her.

No… that was her body.

She groaned, hearing her voice come out as a warbling sort of croon.

Fuck.

A few ideas flitted through her head, ranging from hallucinations to dreams, before finally settling on 'Reincarnation'

My next life is a fucking bird. She thought, becoming a bit manic. Of course it is.

With the knowledge that her body was just as lumpy and disgustingly porous as it was supposed to be, she dragged herself across the (prickly) nest, looking out at the forest around her.

She felt… tiny.

Insignificant.

A single bird in an entire forest - in a whole world. Probably doomed to be eaten by raccoons or something. This sucked.

This _sucked_ !

Tricia chirped sadly, dragging her head down and resolving to sleep as much as she could. Her feathers would grow in eventually, right?

"Wake up."

Tricia groaned, tucking her head a bit closer to her chest, wishing the world would just pass on by. She'd died once already, and was now doomed to sitting with an achingly empty belly. A warm shadow passed over her.

"Wake up, before I eat you."

A jolt of fear shot through her tiny body, and she shot upright, flailing little stubs of arms (wings?) and kicking out with her feet.

She slumped onto her back, heart racing, muscles already tired from that small movement. The shape above her sharpened into the black bird, beak open in mocking, raspy laughter.

"Now that's better." it growled, finally stopping the harsh choking noise. It sidestepped around the edge of her nest, peering at her from different angles.

"You wake up when I come back." it finally demanded, nipping at her tiny stub of a wing. She pulled it away, tucking it closer to her and trying to sit upright. She glared at the bird with as much strength as she could muster, trying not to feel put-out when the bird just huffed another chuckle at her anger.

"Don't be so prickly, little squirt. You need to eat more, or your flesh will fall off your bones. I'd rather not try hunting down that good-for-nothing this late in the season. Egg laying is a pain" The bird muttered something under her breath, beak clicking with irritation.

Tricia blinked, feeling stupid for not making the connection.

"You're my mother?" she asked.

Well, she tried asking.

The sound came out more like a vibrating grunt, and several hissy clicks. She quickly shut her mouth as the crow snickered at her again.

"You'll have to practice using that tongue of yours, little squirt." The bird's eyes squinted shut in what could be called a smile. "Since you're awake and responding again, I'll assume you'll eat something, yeah?"

Tricia nodded meekly, the gnawing hunger writhing like it could carve open her gut. Black feathers rustled as the bird leapt away into the air, the sound of wings blending quickly into the quiet slide of leaves and wind.

The crow (raven?) returned after a short time, shoving another sour, brightly-colored piece of something into her face. She flinched away at first, but the bird was having none of it. It didn't take much prying to shove her mouth open, and the rotting meat pushed down her throat.

She coughed and gagged, more concerned about the concept than the taste.

The hunger abated once more, and she realized with a bit of misery that her gut liked that kind of food. Gross.

It was difficult to tell when the large bird was present, or if it had left yet to retrieve some other weird food. Sometimes she wondered if it even flew, or just appeared somehow. No, that was ridiculous. Maybe flapping just wasn't as noisy as she thought it should be.

In the next few days, she'd be introduced to a variety of long or recently-dead things, and a whole host of leggy, crunchy bugs. (To be honest, she preferred the bugs to the meat.)

That pattern continued for what felt like several weeks, her days broken up by feedings and sleeping. Every once in awhile she woke up at night, black feathers draped warmly over her body, smushing her comfortably into the nest.

It was a bizarre sort of existence, but not too terrible.

Her evaluation of her new life quickly changed when her feathers started to develop in earnest. She had quickly grown to nearly the size of her 'mother', filling up the nest and making it a bit awkward for both of them to sleep in it.

A sense of restlessness grew in her chest, and she started beating her wings whenever her mother was away. They actually looked more like wings now, instead of bald (ugly) stubs. Rough feathers and black down had spread across her bald little sides, and from what she could tell, she looked more like a ruffled soot ball than an actual bird.

Still, it was an improvement on the lump of hamburger meat that had broken out of an egg.

It was easier to look out over the forest, watching other birds and small animals flit around. She felt a pang of longing, and looked forward to the day she, too, could fly. There must be something good to come of this weird next-life thing, right? Surely, she hadn't been fated to be reborn, only to get eaten by a hawk or something, right?

Her claws gripped the bark easily, wings pumping absentmindedly. Gotta strengthen those muscles.

She wasn't sure if it was a gust of wind, or if she really had just lost balance, but Tricia definitely noticed when she started falling ass-over-teakettle down through the branches. She squawked and scrabbled at the branches and leaves, before landing in a painful pile at the base of her tree.

She lay quietly, panting and getting her bearings for a long moment. Wow she was small.

She pushed herself awardly upright, hunching down and shuffling backward until she was sort-of protected by a large root.

Not good.

Her mind flashed to a dozen ways a baby bird could be gobbled up by passing wildlife - from other birds, to snakes, to cats or dogs. Hell, there might be bird-eating spiders laying in wait.

She eyed the half-decayed leaves suspiciously.

Tricia nearly jumped out of her skin at the dark shape rushing at her, but relaxed when it settled into the feathered shape of this life's mother.

"A bit impatient, are we?"

Tricia shifted awkwardly, forcing her tongue to move deliberately.

"It wassn'Accident."

The other bird clucked at her, hopping around before stepping closer to her and prodding her sides with that sharp beak.

"Not hurt!" Tricia added, and her mother stepped back, satisfied.

"Find some bugs or something." The older bird instructed, looking distracted. "Your squealing pulled me away from a good meal, so you're on your own for this one."

She must have sensed Tricia's swelling terror, and flicked her tail in irritation .

"Not abandoning YOU, idiot squirt. You need to learn to feed yourself sometime. Not going to have a layabout in MY shadow." The bird scoffed, taking again to the skies.

Tricia swallowed, watching the bird alight on a nearby tree, turning to stare down at her. She obediently stood up, wobbling a bit as she tried scratching at the leaves and dirt for a bug.

(Honestly, she didn't know which was more humiliating. This, or waiting for a chunk of mouse to be pushed into her face.)

She hopped over an oddly shaped throwing knife, and a rusty plate of metal in a half-hearted chase after a centipede before deciding it was too much work. Centipedes were bitter anyway.

She did eventually find several black beetles, almost caught a mouse, and apparently that satisfied her mother enough to come swooping in and drag the little rodent back by its neck.

They shared a bloody meal that night, and the black eyes on her back felt much more comforting, on the forest floor.

When morning arrived, she woke up to find her mother missing from the branch she had last seen her in. The warm (summer?) breeze stirred some leaves, and hunger rumbled in her belly once again.

She ended up flipping leaves over, hopping around the underbrush and kicking over half-decomposed sticks and bark to find little grubs. One large chunk of bark revealed a coiled up little snake. Tricia stared at it for a moment, frozen where she stood with wings half-open for balance. Then it was moving, and she shrieked, flapping backward and tumbling into a graceless pile. Leaves rustled as the brown snake fled, and she relaxed, rolling upright again with an ungainly flop of wings and flailing legs.

"Sometimes I wonder why I even bothered to let you live."

She nearly jumped out of her skin at the sudden voice, chirping in distress and whirling to find her mother standing on a nearby rock. The older bird jumped down, walking toward her with an aggressively lowered head. Where on earth did she come from?

"After all this work, you jump out of the nest like an idiot , and freak out at the smallest thing."

Tricia blinked at the grumbled words, meekly pecking at a small spider crawling near her feet. Her feathers prickled, chest sore from two days of repeated attempts at flying.

"I'll keep try-"

"You won't be able to fly."

Her mother cut in over her words, snapping her beak with no small amount of irritation.

"Not before a damn fox gets you, anyway. You're too young and stupid to use the shadows properly, but I'd rather not have wasted all this energy for nothing."

The ruffled chick froze, feeling her mother looming over her, regarding her with one dark eye.

"You're the only one out of your siblings that had a lick of Chakra, so don't make me regret not eating your egg as well."

Grey eyes widened, and she twisted to look at her mother.

"You ATE-"

Darkness swallowed her.


	2. Chapter 2

Darkness spat her back out in the nest, eerily warm shadows sliding semi-liquid between her feathers as it pulled away.

Her mother perched on a nearby branch, staring pointedly at her.

"Don't fall out again."

She swooped away, green iridescence flashing off black feathers.

Tricia lay in the crumpled heap she had been left in, breathing shallowly and trying to wrap her head around the hot rush of darkness, and the sudden transportation.

….Chakra…?

Her mind crawled back to her old life - to kids trapped in icebergs, and four elements thrown around to decide the fate of a world. There weren't any magical birds in Avatar, though. Right? Well, there was some animals that could use bending, but she was pretty sure birds weren't on the list.

She mulled over the ideas for a long time, laying quietly in her nest and pretending very hard that she could logic her way out of this situation. At least that meant her crow (raven?) mother wouldn't be mad at her for doing something stupid again.

A memory niggled her mind, and she dragged herself up to the edge of the nest, peering down at the leaflitter below. It took a few long minutes of staring before she was finally able to locate the soft glint of darkened steel.

Yep.

There it was. She had stumbled over it earlier, but didn't stop to pay attention to her surroundings.

A _Kunai_.

She blinked slowly, mulling the idea of being reborn into a manga series. The prospect of this whole life being a weird hallucination or coma dream had become marginally more likely. Surely the 'Naruto' universe wasn't a real place, right? And why would she be born as a bird of all things?

Tricia settled back down into her nest, puffing up her feathers and feeling her air sacs inflate throughout her body. She flexed her claws, folding her (elbowswristsshoulders) a bit tighter to her sides. Bird anatomy was weird.

Still, that didn't really explain the Chakra thing.

Why would a bird have Chakra? Unless she was a summon animal? That would explain the talking mother bird, after all. The idea of being essentially a servant to a ninja's needs prickled uncomfortably against her skin. Being used in warfare wasn't an attractive prospect.

Her grasp of the later manga was loose and fuzzy, and after losing interest a few episodes into 'Shippuden', she had never bothered delving further into the series' backstory. Maybe the nin-animal thing had been explained then, and she missed out. That would have been so cool, but her interest in the series as a whole had waned years ago.

Tricia picked absently at a loose piece of grass poking out of the nest, twisting and bending it to push it back into the weave of sticks.

The shadowy transportation, now that she thought about it, might have resembled one of those shadow-bloodline techniques. Like the one kid with the spiky hair… and the deer. Damn, she couldn't remember names right now. He had the hots for Gaara's sister? Then the dog kid had a nin-dog, sorta, maybe… Did Naruto actually have fox summoning animals, or was that just a good fanfiction?

Maybe she should try remembering the manga, before trying to leap to conclusions.

Unless this world was completely unrelated to Naruto, and the whole kunai-and-chakra thing was coincidental.

She could ask her bird-mom, but the old crow seemed pissier than usual.

Tricia eventually fell asleep, staying blissfully unconscious when her mother came back, took a nap squashed next to her, and left again in a whirl of shadows.

She was more careful, from then on, trying to stretch her wings. Tricia would waddle her way to different branches, flapping furiously in a weird glide to another branch, and then climbing her way back up again. She felt like a parrot, using her beak and claws to grapple up the rough bark, but it worked well enough that her mother let it happen.

She probably looked ridiculous, flailing her wings to try and get enough lift that her beak wasn't so strained. Climbing a tree using your mouth and neck muscles is not fun. Neither was trying to talk, with bits of bark in your mouth. It was hard to spit when you didn't have lips.

"Alright, stop."

Tricia slipped, whirling around to haul herself back up onto the branch she had nearly launched herself off of.

Her mother hopped down from a higher branch, tilting her head and watching her daughter stand up again.

"Your feathers are developed enough. If you're still too weak to fly, put some Chakra into your chest."

Tricia eyed her mother as the bird flapped her wings in demonstration, but didn't really know what she should be looking at.

"...how?"

Her mother hissed something softly, spreading her wings and laying one of them over the fledgeling. Tricia shivered, warm darkness dripping through her feathers and curling like curious little fronds against her skin. Something about it was welcoming, and a bit freaky at the same time. Part of her wanted to high-tail it out of there, while another part wanted to luxuriate in it.

But… now that she had a point of comparison, there was a liquidy, warm sort of glow inside her, reaching out toward the living shadows. She puffed her feathers a bit, tilting her head as she considered the feeling, and tried to influence it by her own will.

Several minutes passed, and her mother's wing was starting to get heavier as the older bird lost interest in keeping her comfortable for the demonstration. Tricia had closed her eyes, trying all sorts of mental twists to try to get that liquid warmth to move.

Finally, just as her mother's tensing muscles belied her desire to pull her wing away, she felt it stir.

It wasn't so fantastic or colorful as she remembered the displays of Chakra in "Naruto". No whirling wind or blue swirls, just… a pleasant feeling of something flowing through her chest.

"I think I got it." She mumbled, and ignored the other bird's hissed 'Finally' as she continued to concentrate on moving it around.

She could shift it up to her neck, and enjoyed (read: did not enjoy) the sudden sharpening of the taste of bark still lingering on her tongue. She could move it to her wings and chest muscles, and wondered if she really would be stronger. Couldn't really move it to her legs, though. Her circulation there was awful, so the lack of chakra in that area wasn't much of a surprise.

Tricia shifted absently, digging her claws into the bark. No birdy hand-sign jutsus for her. She was only mildly disappointed with that. The idea of being to spit fire while swooping was pretty attractive. Like a feathery dragon.

With that in mind, she took a deep breath, spread her wings, and jumped.

The warmth pooled in her chest as her wings pumped, feathers catching the air and pulling strangely on the curves of her (armswristsfingers) wings. The expected descent did not come, and she overshot the branch she normally would have aimed for.

Joy bloomed in her chest, and she flapped hard, tail flailing in awkward fans to try and direct her largely horizonal flight. She twisted her head, looking back at her mother to see if the old bird could actually show pride.

Oh wait, she needed her head to steer.

Muscles pulled sharply to the side to follow her neck, and her flight pattern was abruptly thrown off, sending her flailing through the air and landing in a tangle of thin branches.

The leaves supported her for a brief moment, wings outspread to distribute her weight across the fragile hammock.

And then it gave way, and she barely managed to flap her way onto a low branch, instead of landing on the ground again.

She made it!

Well, completely off-course and probably goofy as hell, but it was still flight!

Tricia turned around, hopping in place with delight as her mother casually (and gracefully, the show-off) swooped between branches to land beside her.

For the first time in a long time, the old bird seemed pleased with her.

"Get back to the nest and practice." She rasped, but leaned forward and prodded a feather back into place, adjusting a few other feathers on Tricia's wing in an impromptu preening assist. It felt… unusually maternal.

"Once you can actually fly, I'll teach you to use the shadows."

That day, Tricia learned that crows could purr, if given the right incentive.


	3. Chapter 3

The whole 'reincarnation and subsequent tie-in to the Naruto Universe' was still on her mind, of course. Just… waaay in the back, behind the whole 'Holy shit I can fly' and 'Holy shit I can leave the nest' and 'Holy shit the forest is fucking huge.'

You might say she had a…. Fowl mouth.

Tricia snickered at her own pun, gliding in yet another attempt to learn how to use her tail as a proper rudder. It was easier to think of flying like an extended butterfly-stroke through really thin water. It had all sorts of fluid dynamics and cross-currents to be aware of, and the slightest change in her body posture could throw her off balance.

Except, you know, there were a lot more trees here, than in a lake.

Her mother had left her mostly to her own devices after that initial Chakra-powered flight, letting her hunt her own mice and return to the nest without interference. It was a lot more fun now, than it had been when she was a squishy lump of pre-plucked bird meat.

There were always other small creatures in the forest around her, but never something she felt threatened by. A squirrel here, a rabbit there, maybe a few songbirds that peeped angrily at her when she crashed into a group of them. They didn't seem to be able to talk to introduce themselves, so she'd been calling them 'Borbs' in her head. Bird-orbs, because they were so round when sitting. Fluffy fat little borbs. Too bad they couldn't talk properly - it'd probably be adorable.

Something grabbed her attention, and Tricia pulled up short, peering down to watch a small deer bolt through the sparse underbrush. Several wolves were close on its heels, racing past in what was easily identifiable as a pincer move from above.

Morbidly curious, Tricia followed in the trees, jump-flying from branch to branch to follow the action. She missed the killing blow, but heard the cut-off wail of a dying animal, and the loud scuffle as they dragged it down. She watched them tear into the poor dead deer, rather desensitized to the whole violence thing after picking apart a live mouse for her own meal. Certain elements of gore still weirded her out, though. (Eyeballs and Organs. Give her plain muscles and fat any day.)

Tricia startled, settling down again as her mother folded her wings to watch the group.

"Good kill!" the older bird cawed out.

A few of the wolves looked up at the two of them, body language quickly shifting between alert and amused.

"Kokoro, fancy seeing you here. Finally give up on that ratty old guy?"

Tricia stared at the grey wolf that had called back, a bit bewildered.

It was one thing for a Canid to talk, but another thing entirely for it to speak the same language as her. They weren't speaking crow? Was there some sort of... universal language thing going on? Why didn't her Borbs talk back?

Her mother (Kokoro?) wheezed a laugh, flying down to land next to the wolf. And holy hell, that was a size difference. His head was the size of her entire body!

"Come down here and greet our friends, little squirt. Don't be rude."

Tricia hesitated, but obediently followed her mother's example and landed on the leaves nearby. She stared uncomfortably at the young wolves that perked up to watch her walk awkwardly to her mother, already feeling vulnerable on the ground.

"Akihito, this is Kuroko. Squirt, this is Akihito." She peered at the grizzled wolf, clacking her beak. "Play nice, both of you."

The big wolf huffed a small laugh, lying down and licking the lingering blood from his lips and fangs.

"I'm surprised you finally settled down. I thought we were going to see the last of our favorite crow demons eat the dust."

So they knew each oth- Wait, What.

Tricia fluffed up her feathers, staring wide-eyed at the wolf. The two old friends didn't seem to notice her distress.

"It's hard finding someone willing to meet me halfway, you know." Her mother grumbled, flicking her tail in contempt. "Lazy bones wanted me to migrate to the mountains."

Akihito chuckled again, laying his ears back and grinning with his eyes, whiffing a soft "How dare they~" and grinning harder when her mother loudly agreed.

Crow…. demon?

Tricia shifted anxiously, feeling the chakra in her gut wobble in distress. She didn't _feel_ like a demon. They were all...evil and bloodthirsty, right? Half mindless and prone to violence...

Then again, she only knew about the "Great Tailed Beasts." That sounded more grand than just a demon, didn't it? Sounded like there should be not-great and not-tailed demons.

She sat down, hunching her head to her body and listening absently as the two continued to gossip. She stayed still as a younger wolf trotted up to her, laying down and resting its head on a paw to watch her. It was almost considerate, to lower his body like that, instead of towering over her.

"Fresh outta the nest, huh?"

She shot the wolf a surprised look, and it explained.

"Kokoro would have told us about a chick earlier, if you weren't new." A wet nose pressed against her wing, mussing her feathers, hot breath whuffing over her.

"Plus, you smell like a baby."

Her feathers bristled up in objection, and the young wolf laughed, sitting upright and perking its ears.

"What's got your feathers in a twist?"

Her mother was walking back toward her, eyeing the young wolf speculatively.

"She's just mad I called her a baby~" The wolf practically chirped, large paws throwing up leaves as he sprang up and loped away. Tricia sat back down, feeling satisfied he had run from her lunging peck. She wiggled her neck, pushing a crispy dead leaf off her shoulders from where the scamper had thrown it.

"Don't be rude." Her mother reminded, clearly not actually concerned and mostly amused by the event. "Eat up. The pack is _graciously,_ " she stressed the word "sharing their hunt. Next time we'll have to help them scout for it, so thank Akihito for that." Under the sharp stare, Tricia quickly stood up.

She gave a bobbing sort of bow to the grey wolf, still a bit uneasy to be pinned by those golden eyes.

"Thank you very much."

The wolf ducked his chin a bit in return, and rolled over to take a nap while the rest of his pack continued to routinely pace the perimeter.

Turns out, mice and bugs had NOTHING on fresh deer meat. It was so sweet, so juicy - it was hard not to gorge herself fat and stupid on the plentiful feast. She had to keep reminding herself that she had to fly home, and needed to be light enough for that. Her mother had no qualms about hopping up and letting loose on the animal's eyeball, but Tricia... wasn't quite ready for that. It helped that her mother was greedy when it came to eyeballs, so she didn't have a reason to try it anyway.

With a fully belly, and a slowly growing ease around the larger carnivores, she plopped down to digest the huge meal. She didn't even protest as the young wolf slinked back to her side, laying down to watch her doze.

That word still wriggled in the back of her mind, even as the world went a bit fuzzy in her lethargic state.

Was she really a demon?


	4. Chapter 4

Tricia yawned, blinking her eyes open lazily. A warm breath tickled her back feathers, and a slow tilt of her head revealed the large, sandy-colored muzzle of the young wolf who had locked onto her. She reached out, nipping gently at the wiry whiskers in front of her, and hissing in amusement as the canid jumped and reared his head back.

"Rude." He huffed, laying his head down again and regarding her warily.

" _Am_ I really a demon?"

She blinked at her own blurted question, but likewise unused to have someone that she felt comfortable talking casually to. Her bird-mom always felt so.. Snippy. Not mean, but not really welcoming either. Like the egg and subsequent chick was a duty she had to carry out, despite tail-dragging and sighing along the way.

The wolf flicked his ear, smiling with his eyes.

"Man, you really are a baby - Of course you are. A bit weird that you say the word like that, but yeah, you're just like the rest of us."

Oh, she hadn't thought of that.

She peeked around at the other wolves, noting the dramatic change in location since she last had her eyes open. Maybe she had napped longer than she thought. Were they all demons, then? Was she misunderstanding a word, or was she just unable to see it? Certainly, you should be able to sense a demon, right?

"The fact that you're talking to me, means you're one. No one else can speak the Greater Tongue, after all." The wolf stretched his paws, mouth opening in a wide, tongue-curling yawn.

"Geeze, you're making ME sleepy. Stop thinking so hard." He pushed some leaves toward her, accepting the quick peck and waving his paw tauntingly at her, daring her to try again.

She lifted her beak, trying to give him the haughty, holier-than-thou down-the-beak stare that her mother was so good at. The wolf just sniggered at her.

Giving that up as a lost cause, she tried just asking what was on her mind.

"How do you tell a demon from a normal animal, aside from language?"

"Oh, you can tell," That was unhelpful. He seemed to sense her annoyance, and continued hastily, pulling his paws up to his chest and tucking them under. "Demons can eat spiritual energy instead of food if they want, and they don't really have a physical body, though we all kinda just assume that we do, and run with it."

What on earth did that mean?

She asked that aloud.

He looked at her, puzzled, tail drooping a little like he wasn't quite sure how to answer that. Like it should be something innately obvious, and he wasn't sure if she was trying to trick him by feigning ignorance.

"We can be born and die, though, under weird circumstances… but, uh… stuff that would chop up a normal dog wouldn't do much to a demon?"

What kind of weird circumstances? Did that mean all demons once lived another life? Did they all have memories of being a human? Why didn't any of them acknowledge it, if they did? She didn't ask those aloud, but stared intently at the wolf's chest as she mulled it over.

He twisted around, lifting a hind leg and scratching at a spot under his chin, clearly feeling awkward. His leg dropped abruptly when a long, solemn howl started up from a wolf at the edge of their little group.

A ripple passed through the pack, awareness focusing outward as a new howl echoed back, several voices answering. Her friend stood up, ears alert and nose up to sniff the wind.

"Sorry birdie, maybe another day. Ask your mom. She's way older than me."

Tricia hopped to her feet, still feeling heavy from the earlier meal, but hauled ass up into the branches anyway. Fear prickled through her skin at the sudden strange behavior, and the strange connotations from his words had unsettled her a little.

Her mother joined her, whispering to keep quiet and follow her lead.

Dark bodies whispered through the trees, faster than she could properly follow at first. She couldn't help looking around wildly as people bounded from branch to branch, settling down in the limbs. One of them sat on the same branch she and her mother perched on, but appeared to ignore them.

They all seemed a bit… wild. Mostly brown or black-haired, with sharp eyes and strong shoulders regardless of gender. The humans who approached the pack on the ground were likewise sharp-eyed, and stood beside huge wolflike dogs.

The wolves had created a loose circle with their bodies, gold eyes finding every one of the humans perched above, ears swiveled to keep them in their range of senses even when they focused on the group below.

"Well met," One of the huge dogs rumbled, tail tucking down as it stepped forward.

Tricia watched Akihito stand up, prowling stiff-legged through the pack and staring down the much larger dog. The humans seemed on-edge, and it made her feathers itch something fierce.

The dog slinked forward, offering a small lick under the wolf's chin, looking a bit silly with the size grey alpha seemed satisfied with that, briefly leaning his head atop the dog's, before stepping back and staring at the humans.

Tricia noted how they all immediately averted their eyes, but did not otherwise back down. Akihito snorted.

"Same as always, then?"

"Yes. We'd like to offer Akane. She is fast, and agile. She should do well in your pack. Please treat her well."

A long-legged dog stepped forward, likewise avoiding eye contact with Akihito's golden stare, and laid down next to the first. Her deep auburn fur stood out rather brightly compared to the browns and greys of the wolf pack. Akahito regarded her for a moment, before turning slightly back toward his pack.

"Koharu."

The tan wolf that had lain with Tricia trotted forward, ears perked in interest.

"You'll stay with them for one year, and then return. Please accommodate their wishes to the best of your abilities."

Koharu wagged his tail, slowing to a walk to stand at his leader's side.

"He is my sister's-son, strong, and proficient in our Chakra arts despite his young age. Please treat him well."

Tricia tilted her head, leaning against her mother for some extra warmth. It all seemed so ritualized. She gathered they had some sort of agreement, but.. Were they trading pack members or something?

"What's going on?" She whispered.

"Hush, I'll tell you later." Her mother nipped at her with a quiet click, an extra incentive to stay quiet. Neither of them missed how the human perched beside them stiffened at the quiet words.

Tricia was sure he was staring at them out of the corner of his eyes.

The paint on their faces tickled her memory. This was the Naruto universe, right? Cheek painting meant something…

All she could think of was Princess Mononoke and that giant weird-faced deer thing. Something about giant wolves and a disease, and a lot of blood. Wait- there was a kid in the Rookie nine with a dog, and cheeks like that - Kibu? Kaba? Something something fang. Naruto beat him with a fart, once.

She twisted to look down at the proceedings with new interest, a bit disappointed to have already missed the parting words. Both groups were already backing away from each other, humans and dogs (plus her new friend) heading away, while the wolves sat back to stay by the deer.

The humans in the trees started leaving the area as well, but the one perched next to them lingered a bit too long for Tricia to be perfectly comfortable.

Finally, he left, and the forest seemed a bit quieter. Her wolf friend hadn't been able to explain himself. The thought that she'd never see him again felt… oddly sad. She didn't think she'd get so attached, so quickly.

"Those are Contractors."

She tilted her head, tuning into her mother's words.

"A human who made a deal with one of our kind, for the sake of power" Her mother shook out her wings and ruffled her tail, adding absently, "Probably had a demon ancestor, if those teeth mean anything."

Way drop a bombshell. _Damn._

The old bird hopped off and swooped down to the old alpha, completely ignoring the dog now getting thoroughly sniffed by other wolves. Tricia couldn't tear her eyes off the new dog. Now that they were right next to each other, something about the dog felt… off, compared to the wolves.

Empty, in a weird sort of way.

She shifted on her branch, distracting herself with a quick preen of her breast feathers. Was there actually something wrong with the dog, or was she just paranoid?

Her mother flitted back up to the branch, and stared her down for a long moment.

"Back to the nest." she decided, taking flight again. Tricia sighed, spreading her own wings. She paused for a moment, thinking to Koharu's words.

 _('Oh, you can tell')_

She shot one last look at the dog, before clumsily following her mother's wide wings.


	5. Chapter 5

In the days following, Tricia improved in leaps and bounds. Her wings could carry her longer, her Chakra moved swifter, and her many-chambered lungs no longer felt quite as strained when she pushed herself to keep up with her mother's swift wings.

She practiced pushing Chakra to her nose, her eyes, experimenting with different perceptions of the world.

Once, she had spotted her mother returning through the shadows, a little dark patch between branches suddenly melting to pitch black. Her long black beak and head pushed through it like a thin membrane breaking. Kokoro noticed her staring, and asked if she was so bored that she needed to practice her groundwork again.

Tricia cheeped, launching herself into the air and practicing the aerial turns that she'd been instructed to master. Groundwork practice involved a lot of landing and jumping into the air from the forest floor. It was _exhausting_. And tended to give her bruises. There was a certain technique to landing softly on the ground without tipping over, and she hadn't quite figured it out.

Her mother started to introduce her to the Shadows. Listening to them, sensing things through them. She seemed more and more distracted, and would pop away at the drop of a hat, leaving Kuroko (Tricia? The line between her selves was blurring.) to practice alone without warning.

She noticed her Borbs also felt empty, now that she knew what to look for, and spent a long moment staring at the little songbirds flitting about. They were still cute, though. Maybe she could train one to be her pet….

After a few hours of chasing around terrified little creatures through the canopy, she concluded that no, they did not want to be her pet.

Damn.

She became more familiar with the wolf pack, following their steady path through the forest, calling out when she spotted something of interest. Akihito taught her how to identify a mouse's footsteps through the wind, seemingly unbothered that Kokoro kept leaving her daughter alone with the carnivores. One of the darker brown wolves figured out she preferred the fatty rib meat, and kept setting some aside for her, after their hunts.

She felt incredibly guilty that she had forgotten his name, and couldn't muster the courage to ask again.

Tricia helped the wolf pack hunt a young boar, flying hard above the beast, and calling out locations. She felt her heart race, ducking between leaves and dodging branches in a three dimensional space that reminded her of a roller coaster she could control. There was nothing but air, between her and the ground. Nothing but her own muscles sending her flying across the world, eyes bright and feathers strong.

That hunt, the auburn dog Akane proved herself, long legs pushing her further, faster than the rest of the pack. She was able to bite the boar's hind leg, and jump away before it could gore her in return. The pause in running let the pack circle it, eventually bringing it down with a flurry of sharp fangs and terrifying snarls.

Kuroko (Tricia? No, she felt present. She felt alive. These were her wings, her strength. This was her new life.) landed easily on a thick branch above the kill. She waited politely as the wolves feasted, knowing there'd be plenty left over for her. Even a young boar was a large bounty.

She paused, noticing how the wolves had suddenly stilled, attention all angled toward one spot.

With small, dark paws, a brightly furred fox slinked out of the underbrush. Rust-colored eyes regarded the group, steady gait showing no fear.

They stepped to the side, eerily silent, but not aggressive. The slender fox seemed almost proud in bearing as it stepped between the wolves and began taking delicate bites of the boar's haunch.

The pack watched for several long minutes, only a few movements between them as heads turned and legs adjusted to be more comfortable.

Finally, the fox lifted her head, licking her lips. She ducked her chin toward Akihito, and murmured a soft "Thank you." before padding silently back into the brush.

Kuroko flitted down, landing on the boar's shoulder and peering out at the bushes. She already couldn't sense the fox. Creepy.

It took a few moments before the wolves started moving and speaking amongst each other again, eating at a more sedate pace. She took a few bites herself, before turning to the brown wolf whose name she forgot. Kuroko briefly considered asking the wolf his name, but once again decided not to, and instead asked what that whole weird ordeal was about.

He explained the pack was intruding on their territory. It's an understandable thing, during a hunt, though rude. Politely sharing the kill was a way to keep relations positive between their packs. Clans. Families. The wolf blinked, considering the terms for a moment, before repeating 'Packs' and nodded like it was the right word to use.

He swept his eyes across the brush around them, keeping his voice low.

"As soon as we step away, the foxes will come forward. Be careful, Kuroko. They are more cat than wolf."

The prickle on her neck got stronger, and she realized with a start that the bushes really weren't THAT thick, and those were dozens of eyes staring out from the shadows, invisible to her other senses. Tricia shivered, cautiously eating her fill before flying up into the trees once more.

True to the prediction, as soon as Akihito's pack left the scene, an uncomfortable amount of foxes slithered in, feasting on the remnants of the kill.

A silver fox stood at the edge, staring up.

No.

Staring _at her_

Tricia shivered again, flapping away toward her nest.

She arrived back at home to find her mother sprawled across the nest's edge, looking worn-out and rather ruffled. The concerned question about the bird's health was flat-out ignored, so Kuroko asked instead about the wolves and the foxes, and why they seemed so wary of each other. 

Kokoro considered the question, slowly pulling her wings back in, and preening her feathers back in place before answering.

"The pack looks to the moon. Foxes have a history with the sun. Tsukuyomi, Susanoo, and Amaterasu aren't really on good terms, and their devoted tend to be at-odds."

Hello mythology, nice to meet you. Kuroko hopped a bit closer, eyes lighting up with interest.

"Tsukuyomi…." _that sounds familiar._

"I'm surprised the pack hasn't raved about him, yet. He's the god of the moon, and the night. They'll probably drag you into one of their noisy ceremonies eventually." Kokoro shook her head, ruffling her feathers before flattening them back into place.

 _Is that why wolves like to howl?_ Kuroko wondered.

"Then, who do we worship?"

Kokoro gave her an amused glance.

"I don't worship any of the gods. Feel free to lay out offerings, though. I'm sure the squirrels will love it."

The crow immediately hopped out of the nest, flying slowly away in what was clearly an invitation to follow. She took the hint, keeping in her mother's shadow as they headed toward the shallow creek that slithered through the southern edge of their territory. Kuroko wondered if she was imagining the way her mother was keeping one leg more tightly tucked to her belly.

"What do you mean, they're at odds? Tsuki… and the others? What does that have to do about anything?"

"Ask the wolves" her mom called out, without slowing down or looking back. "I'm sure they'd be happy to give you an earful. I try not to think about it."

Kuroko (Tricia?) wondered about the reality of gods - if they were real, since demons were real. It would be worth investigating.

She also wondered if she should give up on trying to seperate her past and present lives, and just address herself with one name. She had been so swept up by these exhausting days and nights that she hadn't really stopped to consider herself. How was she supposed to feel?

Would her loved ones back home be mad, if she just… forgot?

A dark storm brewing in her chest, Kuroko followed the older bird to the entrance of a cave, landing next to her on a boulder. The moss was cool and springy under her feet, and she could feel cold air drifting out of the darkness within.

"Today." Kokoro began, now clearly favoring one of her legs, "You will begin learning how to use the shadows."


	6. Chapter 6

Kuroko followed her mother to the edge of the cave, ignoring the way a few of her feathers flipped the wrong way from the little gusts of cold wind coming from within. Her mother hopped to turn around, taking a slow breath.

"The first thing you should know is that the shadows themselves are just the absence of light. There's nothing special about them. The average bird could fly around a cave all night, but the best they'd get is a broken neck."

Her mother shook her own head, feathers sticking up for a moment before slowly settling back down.

"With that in mind, the shadows you see me travel through, or the the ones you'll learn to listen through - they're not real _shadows_."

Kuroko nodded, though she wasn't actually sure what was being conveyed. Something metaphorical? Kokoro seemed to sense the bewilderment.

"It's more like-" Her mother paused, head tilted in consideration. "Like you're at the edge of a dark cave." She flicked her tail toward the cave they stood beside. "Down the tunnel, there's another room, and by traveling through the space you reach the other room."

"Okaaay…So caves are caves."

She reflexively ducked away from an anticipated peck, and got an unamused stare from an unmoving crow.

"Once you step through the cave entrance, you can see the light of the other side, as the entrance you just stepped through is closed. Head toward the light, and you'll reach the other side. Or, listen at the entrance, and hear whoever's talking."

Kuroko dutifully remained quiet as her mother sat down, taking a moment to push a small stone out of the way, to nestle on the softer moss.

"So a shadow" she finally continued "Is a cave entrance, when you're focusing correctly."

Kuroko tilted her head.

"All of them. All the shadows."

Oh.

Oh damn.

She looked toward the forest, noticing for the first time the sheer number of shadows weaving between branches, under leaves, tucked up next to stems and roots and… anything the light touched, basically.

"That's a lot." She whispered, and her mother nodded, still fidgeting in place and looking anxious about something. Either to get this lesson over with, or to be elsewhere in general. .

"Too many to count. That's why you only travel to the shadows you've seen before. The ones you know exist, and you know what to expect coming out." The old crow flicked a bit of moss off the boulder. "It's a bit of a mess, coming through a shadow to a place that's no longer big enough for your body. They only go one way, after all. There's some risk, and half the time you're flying blind."

Kuroko eyed the darkened cave with a bit more wariness.

"Relax, squirt. No jumps for you yet. You've got a lot of sky to cover before you could even poke your beak into one. Today you'll just be listening in." She gestured with her head. "Hop on over."

Kuroko fluttered off the boulder, hopping closer to the chilly cave. She wondered if this was the most her mother had ever spoken at one time.

"Push your Chakra to your ears. Focus on the darkness. Imagine it links to the shadows around you, and listen specifically to those. Visualizing a tunnel might help."

The first part was easy enough. The world's audio sharpened, magnifiying. She could hear the buzz of a dragonfly nearby, and the slide of blades of grass whispering as a snake slithered through. There was a woodpecker of some sort, far in the distance.

Focusing on the darkness, though…

She tried imagining some sort of spiritual experience, tilted her mindset to include the idea of multidimensional travel and maybe some sort of jump space alternate world like Nightcrawler used to poof around. (the blue cutie~)

Kuroko opened her eyes, not sure when she had closed them.

The cave still looked like a cave.

Also, there seemed to be at least three different moles snuffing around down there, and a rather large colony of some sort of insect, munching and squirming and falling over each other with little clicks.

She heard her mother sigh behind her. "Keep practicing. I'll see you tonight." and the whisper of wings, followed by a silence she knew was the sudden absence of a bird behind her.

Kuroko swallowed, closing her eyes again and trying to focus.

The next time she opened her eyes, it was due to the ravenous hunger growling in her stomach. Right, she hadn't eaten since the boar.

Shutting off her audio enhancement, Kuroko blinked at the sudden muffled quiet of the world around her. It was so…. Dull. Faded. She tried not to give into the urge to push her senses up again, and focused on finding enough bugs and seeds and little critters to tide her over.

After a quick meal, she returned to the cave, and plopped her ass down in front of it.

"Focus on the darkness, It links to other shadows." She repeated, wiggling side to side to get comfortable, and glaring at a shiny rock inside.

"Focus."

She closed her eyes, and let her ears wake up once more.

She didn't know how exactly much time had passed. Enough that the warm sunlight had become cold, and long shadows stretched across the ground. Between the faint snuffle-shuffle of moles and the click of still-unidentified insects, there was…. Something.

Encouraged, she tried focusing on it, straining her ears to pick up whatever that sound was. It whispered in and out of her range, almost-syllables, echoing and layering in ways she couldn't quite identify. Kuroko felt her heart pick up, as the 'voices' got louder, a little clearer. It felt like she was trying to eavesdrop on someone on the other side of a very long tunnel. The sounds were there, but almost unintelligible after resonating at such a distance.

"Can you hear me?"

Her mother's voice came from right in front of her, and Kuroko snapped her eyes open, rearing back with the expectation of a crow in her face.

There was only the cave. No, it wasn't just the cave. Like a black curtain had been draped over it, the shadows seemed _deeper_ somehow, darker than they ought to be.

She looked around hesitantly, noting the shadowy landscape around her, and how the crickets that had begun their evening symphony.

"Should I head home soon?" she asked the darkness.

And the darkness answered.

"Not yet.. Listen for the crow voices. Like mine."

Curious, she closed her eyes and listened harder, trying to pick out the raspy tones so familiar in her mother's tongue.

 ** _"-next sunrise we-...-rthern roost...borders cross-... -eryone, return for assis-..."_**

 _They sound scared_. She noted, straining a bit to listen more closely. More voices chimed in, words overlapping and becoming hard to pick apart.

"The Northern Roost has been compromised." came her mother's muttered voice, suddenly behind her. Kuroko pointedly did not startle, a bit more used to the bird's habit of suddenly appearing wherever she damn well pleased.

"We noticed humans pushing into the northern territory before you were born, but their infighting has spilled into the Roost itself. You'll fly to the Foxes - they'll finish the introductory training, but I needed to know I could contact you, in case of emergencies."

Tricia let her grasp on the shadowy whispers drop away, and the Cave's unnatural black faded. She regarded the older bird quietly, not sure if she should protest or not. Her bones felt tired, chest hollowed out in hunger again. Chakra drain was no joke with this shadow thing.

"If it's compromised, then you'll be-"

"In danger, yes." Kokoro flicked her tail dismissively. "Thousands make their nests at the northern site. It's been the home of crows since the world was created. A few humans, even Contracted, will have nothing on us, so long as we mobilize. I'll retrieve you when it's safe."

Kuroko tried to pretend to be casual, okay with it, but fear started to well up despite her best intentions. This was a new life, it's not like she had any of her old connections, but the idea of being completely alone loomed ahead of her. She wouldn't even have a familiar face to keep as reference.

"Fly East, Kuroko. You'll find a human road. Follow that north, and keep an eye out for a river. The Foxes should be at the tallest pine tree on its bank, after you've passed a tall human structure"

Tricia pulled her head down, hunching a little on the branch.

"You can't just take me there?"

A flash of irritation in dark eyes.

"You need to learn to navigate beyond our little circle of forest. If you get lost, call out to me through the shadows. I'll hear you."

Her mother rumbled softly, carefully pulling a small fluff of loose down off of the side of Tricia's neck.

"East, then north along the road. Tall pine on the river. Got it?"

Tricia nodded, repeating it back to her.

"Good. Fly well, little squirt. Don't worry about me."

She watched as her mother stepped back, one foot clenched strangely, spreading her wings in a rare display of showmanship. Darkness spread out from between the feathers, and she flapped up into the air, wings growing and feathers multiplying with shadowy tendrils, figure expanding into something huge and feathered and overwhelmingly _dark_. The world seemed a few shades dimmer. A monstrous approximation of a crow spread her wings between the trees. Black eyes gleamed from the shadowy head, and her mother's voice croaked.

"I'll be fine."

Before the wings snapped inward, vanishing into what could have been mistaken for a curl of black smoke.

Tricia stared at the particle darkness, watching it writhe for a moment before disappearing.

Huh.

Guess that sealed the whole demon question.

She glanced at the cave, and stood up. Something in her gut still worried that her mother was trying to bluff - or convinc herself that things would be fine. It was too late to do anything about it now, and worrying couldn't do much at this point.

Right, then.

She spread her wings, glancing at the setting sun to find her bearings, and launched into the sky.

Food first.

Then, an Adventure.

For a brief moment, Tricia felt like a Hobbit.


	7. Chapter 7

After catching a small, harmless little snake and tearing it to tasty ribbons, Kuroko didn't get much further than the 'First a meal' plan.

The sun had already begun to set in earnest, and her eyes - no matter how much chakra she poured into them - were not built for the night. It was too overcast to fly by moonlight, and she was already anxious from the idea of being on her own. The world just seemed so much bigger than she wanted to really think hard about.

Also, owls were nocturnal assholes.

As night fell, Kuroko found herself in the nest she was born in, hunkering down in the familiar curve of woven branches. She guiltily tucked her head down, resolving herself to setting out early in the morning to make up for time lost.

She had come to realize that "As the crow flies" should not be a measure of straightforward distance. She didn't know what crows that person had been watching, but it seemed suspicious. Between the wind, natural updrafts from warm spots in the forests, and the weird turbulence around the many rivers of Fire country, there was no way in hell she was traveling in a straight line.

Still headed generally 'East' though. Good enough.

Before the sun had even reached noon, her wings were already starting to get tired. Even her neck felt like it was going to cramp into knots.

Sue her, she'd never just straight-up marathoned before. Did her mother expect her to just fly straight there, or was taking a break okay? How long was that, anyway… 4 hours? 5? She was supporting her entire body weight on just her wings, and balancing in the turbulent air on top of that.

Screw it.

Kuroko landed with a thumph in a pile of thick river grass, laying in blissful relief for a few glorious minutes. Her chest and shoulders throbbed in time with her heart, wings sprawled across the flexible stalks. Moving after that felt almost sinful, but she managed to drag her overworked body to the edge, dipping her beak in for several long gulps.

Yeah, that was good.

She absently pecked up a spider as it crawled through the grass beside her, crunching it with the tip of her beak before tossing it back in a little gulp. She kept an eye out for any frogs. Those were tasty.

Something moved out of the corner of her eye, and she tilted her head hopefully. She almost missed it, until a slight movement betrayed a forked tongue. A thick brown snake was sitting still, neck coiled up in preparation to strike. Bright yellow eyes stared her down, deep pits on its nose ringing several alarm bells.

Nope.

Nopenopenopenopenoepnope nooope!

She burst upward in a flurry of feathers, ignoring her muscles screaming pain in favor of _not dying, thank you very much_. She looked back, once she was safely in the skies again, but the snake had already vanished into the long grass.

Right.

Crows aren't exactly apex predators.

She took a deep breath, pushing through the ache and trying her best to ride currents for a while. She trudged on eastward, wondering exactly how long she was expected to fly.

Hours later, that question had grown from a weary comment to an incredulous repetition, as each beat of her wings brought her lower and lower to the treetops.

This was insane.

She landed clumsily, letting her wings hang uselessly on the branch as she sucked in gasping breaths. Apparently her stamina sucked. A curling growl in her stomach reminded her that she hadn't exactly eaten much, aside from breakfast and a random spider. Her body was not used to going without.

Using Chakra to enhance her ears only made the hunger worse, but it allowed her to pinpoint the shrill peeping of some baby birds in a neighboring tree.

…. No, she wouldn't….They were babies… and birds. Wasn't that cannibalism? Ugh.

A few moments later, she was perched on the edge of their nest, looking down at the wide red mouths and eager little peeps, wondering if she had ever looked that lumpy and useless. (Yes, yes she had.) Thank goodness there was no swelling of maternal instinct. They were just birds. Noisy, limp baby birds.

She clacked her beak, not sure where to start. Mice always seemed like straightforward prey. They ran, you caught them. And then ate them. These little guys…

They continued to peep, reaching up toward her. They trusted her.

Damn.

Quite suddenly, her vision snapped sideways, and pain bloomed in her neck and the back of her head. Her ears were filled with the furious scream of an angry songbird. Her stomach growled, and the sparrow wheeled around for another run at her head.

Fuckit.

She grabbed one of the babies in her claws, swooping away and dodging a very angry second songbird parent in its murder-dive. She pumped Chakra into her chest, sprinting through the air with her squishy prize. The sparrows eventually lost the determination to hunt her down, and she was able to land to eat it.

She couldn't tell if it was still breathing, or if it was her own pounding heart warping her sight, but she was quick to snap its neck, just in case.

For all that effort and angst, the flavor was disappointing, but she appreciated the break to relax her muscles.

In the middle of rubbing bits of gore off her beak, Kuroko paused to grip her branch a bit harder as the forest seemed to rumble. A plume of dust rose above the tree line, buffeted by an unusual sweep of wind.

 _Since when did wind blow straight upward_?

Kuroko waited for a few long minutes, the active ache in her wings fading to a persistent tiredness. Good enough.

She flapped up into the sky again, heading toward the plume with no small amount of curiosity. She blinked open Chakra-enhanced eyes, scanning the leaves as she flew over the site. A flash of silver caught her eye.

Her wings almost missed a beat in surprise as a column of fire raced through the trees, swirling bright and fierce across the trunks. They were moving too fast for her to follow, but she caught the moments when they paused. Someone screamed, and she turned slightly to see someone falling dramatically to the ground, blood spurting in an arch as a long sword pulled out of them.

Someone leaped at the swordsman, but fell to the ground after their head jerked sideways. (kunai? Holy shit they were fast)

Several spikes of rock shot up, and one unlucky person didn't get out of the way fast enough.

Fire consumed the area.

Kuroko felt herself buffeted upwards from the rising heat, and flared her tail to keep balance, closing her eyes against the bright flames.

When she opened them again, the fighting had stopped. Only the green-clad people remained, walking around. She couldn't see the detail on their headbands from this distance, but she definitely noticed when one of them looked _up at her_.

She quickly averted her gaze, carefully keeping her wings at a steady pattern.

 _I'm just a bird, flying around. Nothing suspicious here, ignore the perfectly normal crow, la de da~"_

Her thoughts were strained, forced lightheartedness belying the jolt of adrenaline racing through her veins. If they decided to hunt her down, she'd be shit outta luck.

A few minutes later, she still hadn't been struck down, and allowed herself to relax a hair.

Up ahead, the forest parted to reveal a wide dirt road.

 _East to road, then north to follow it_. Thank goodness.

She angled her tail, gently curving to begin following the dusty tan slice through otherwise endless green forests and shining rivers. (and the occasional ninja battle, apparently) There was a faint updraft from the heated earth, and she thankfully used it to glide between wingbeats.

When the sun was just starting to set, and there was no river - or unusual pine - visible from the road just yet. Or maybe she missed it, and was screwed. Who knew?

So many possible bad endings with just… flying around with vague instructions to a final destination she'd never visited before.

A generous berry bush, a small nest of voles, and several grasshoppers later, Kuroko tucked her head under one wing and hunkered up next to the trunk of a tree with particularly thick foliage.

Before she fell asleep, she had a sudden, certain realization.

 ** _My body is going to hate me in the morning._**


	8. Chapter 8

She woke in the morning with a low groan, resigned to the fact her prediction had been 100% correct.

Kuroko lingered to eat roadside bugs a bit longer than strictly necessary, opening and stretching her wings until she was sure it really wasn't getting any better. A familiar cawing drew her attention, and she was in the air in a heartbeat.

Her heart lifted at the sight of wide black wings, and she hurried to head off the familiar bird.

:"Have you heard anything about the Northern Roost? Or Kokoro? She's my mother, I-" The bird wheeled away, cawing reproachfully at her.

Kuroko opened her beak, but the bird was already flying down into the forest again.

Oh.

"Just a normal crow…" she murmured, trying to ignore the way her heart sank, a bitter taste on her tongue. She didn't realize how much it had been weighing on her, until she brought it up again. The way Kokoro had been favoring her leg - She had been injured, hadn't she?

How long had she been traveling to the roost, before that day?

 _Since before I was born?_.

A small part of her wondered why she cared so much. She'd only been alive in this body for what, Four months? Maybe? How long did it take crows to learn to fly, anyway? She had nearly a quarter-century of life as a human on her belt. Four months was nothing.

The ache in her heart said otherwise.

 _Tricia_ thought maybe she ought to figure out if they had a plan for a future, in this world. Figure out the time-of-plot, and see if she could influence things. That's what you did in a reincarnation, right? She remembered reading a couple fanfics like that.

Kuroko exhaled, focusing her eyes forward and keeping pace alongside the long road. She had a loose, roundabout grasp on the _Naruto_ plotline. It'd be pointless to insert herself into danger. Living day-by-day had kept her alive and well. She was just a bird.

 _A demon_ Tricia thought. _With shadow powers. That's something, right?_

At long last, she spotted a pine tree sticking up out of the regular variation of trees, and the glint of a river close by. She wished she could be more happy for making the journey, but her worries and aching muscles weighed down her mood.

The branches were uncomfortably prickly to land on, and hard to get into without getting poked to hell by blue-green needles. Still, she managed, settling down to wait for a fox to arrive and bring her to the next stage of training.

And waited.

And waited.

She flew off for a meal, and circled the tree before returning to her perch, beginning to feel a prickle of unease. Was she too late? Was she too slow? Was she supposed to have the stamina to just fly straight here, and the foxes got bored of waiting and abandoned her?

Kuroko fluttered down to a fallen branch, looking around from ground-level.

She settled down, deciding to wait a bit longer before freaking out in earnest.

A faint crackle caught her attention.

She turned her head, perking up at the sight of a fox's broadly furred face staring at her from the underbrush. She checked, and could sense the 'presense' of it. Thank goodness.

"I'm here to learn from the Foxes." She called out, eager to get introductions over with. Her mother hadn't really told her any sort of etiquette things, so she wasn't quite sure why she wasn't getting an answer. Was she supposed to introduce herself first?.  
"My name's Kuroko?"

The fox prowled closer, shoulders moving smoothly under its thick coat. Kuroko shifted uneasily, the copper eyes focused with an unexpected intensity.

"My mother sent me - Kokoro - I…"

A presence behind her.

!

She sucked in a breath, launching herself into the air and flapping hard to get up into a nearby tree with a distressed squawk.

She whipped around, heart racing, mind whirring with the idea that this was a trap - that she was going to be stranded here, or hunted like an animal.

 _Wait, she was an animal._

The second fox chuffed a laugh at her, sitting primly while the young crow bristled angrily and _hissed_.

"Aren't you going to introduce yourself first, little one?"

Kuroko swallowed her hiss, watching the first fox lick a black paw.

"My name's … Kuroko." She had already introduced herself, was he being dense on purpose?

"Kuroko, huh? It suits you. I'm Shun."

She dropped down a branch, hopping a bit closer to the fox, but still wary about actually landing on the leaflitter. Shun seemed to notice, and flicked an ear in clear amusement.

"Paranoid little bugger, aren't you? Slow, too. Kokoro contacted us days ago."

The fox stood up, curling her tail and trotting away, the silent fox close on her heels.

"Come on, then. We'll get you situated, and figure out a schedule so I don't have to wake up so goddamn early all the time."

Kuroko blinked at the sudden swearing, but figured her own mind was probably filthier.

Still, there was a sweeping feeling of relief, that she wasn't actually abandoned.

Or maybe she was just relieved to have someone order her around again.

Neither dependency boded well for her.

. -

Apparently, foxes in general were not pleased to wake up before sunset.

Several slinked out of a large burrow, squinting at the sky and retreating to slightly-darker patches of underbrush as the rest of them came out.

Shun slipped out from the burrow, two more foxes on his tail, and addressed the small gathering.

 _What was a gathering of foxes called, anyway? Crows were a 'murder'... wolves were a 'pack'. An Intrusion of cockroaches…._

She decided to call them a 'pack', just to be simple. That's what Koharu had called them, it was probably fine.

"This is Kuroko, daughter of Kokoro. She'll be staying with us until she learns to shift her form."

 _Oh? That sounded promising._

One of the foxes flattened their ears, speaking up with a note of incredulity.

"Why doesn't she just go to a Roost?"

"Because the Northern Roost is being attacked" Shun replied smoothly, not even batting an eye.

"It's not like here is any safer." another murmured, but ducked their head away when Shun turned to them.

"It is what Kokoro has asked of us, and so we will proceed. Of course, since the _lady_ sleeps at night, it'll be up to you to wake up early."

 _What…. What was the weird emphasis for?_

Kuroko lowered her head as the foxes began muttering amongst themselves, clear expressions of resentment flickering across their sharp faces. The one who had spoken up in the beginning, especially, looked outraged.

 _She had a bad feeling about this._

Shun dismissed them, and ignored the groaning and huffing that the foxes didn't try to hide as they returned to their burrow. She turned to Kuroko, stepping lightly around fallen leaves.

"Since there's still plenty of daylight, are you well enough to begin, or should we stop to get something to eat, first?"

The fox perked up her ears and smiled in a canine sort of way.

Something about it… seemed fake.

She couldn't tell how exactly, since every movement of the sleek fox practically glowed with friendly helpfulness. But… something about her… voice, or the quickness of her support, didn't sit quite right.

"N-no, I'm fine. We can start whenever you're ready."

Shun nodded her head, still smiling that slightly-off smile, and turned to pad down a well-walked little grass tunnel through the underbrush.

Kuroko took a few hops after her, before taking flight and just following the fox from above. Copper eyes flashed up at her, and Shun broke into a quick trot, matching the speed of her slow flight through unfamiliar branches.

Her stomach grumbled at her, but she didn't mention it.

They ended up at the edge of the river, in a shallow area that acted more like a quickly-cycled wetlands. Patches of long grass were interspersed with tall reeds, and wiry trees growing despite the waterlogged soil.

Shun hopped between the grassy little islands, before sitting down by a particularly calm patch of water.

"Your mother wants you to learn how to travel by shadow. Apparently, knowing how to shift your form around a bit helps with that."

She wished she knew fox body language a bit better. That tail flick probably meant something, but Shun's face and voice gave nothing away but pleasant conversation.

"So we'll start with the basics." She tilted her head toward the slowly-moving water. "You're going to look at your reflection for a while. Get a good picture of who you are, What you look like, what you believe in." That tail flick again.

"Feel free to let some of your shadows leak out, I've heard that helps. Let me know when you've got all your edges identified."

 _The what does what in where now?_

Shun gave her a nod, and slinked over to flop onto some grass. Copper eyes turned to her, and Kuroko hopped over to get a look at her reflection. Yeah… those instructions weren't confusing at all.

Please note the sarcasm.

Her reflection was as-expected. A black bird, with a thick beak and black eyes. Black legs, black claws, black everything. Just like her mother, some of her neck feathers gleamed green, and her eyes seemed a little grey when the sunlight hit them just right. She'd seen her image hundreds of times before, drinking from little puddles or the slow-moving creek on the edge of her mother's territory. Nothing new. .

Shun yawned, a tiny whine escaping the back of her throat before she plopped her head down on the grass.

Kuroko took a deep breath, and exhaled.

She pushed some chakra around, not really sure what difference she was supposed to see. After a few long, awkward minutes of this, she spoke up.

"What did you mean by 'Shadows leak out?'"

A slow blink.

"Mmm...No clue. Ask your mother."

"She's not here right now." Kuroko stated, trying to contain the building frustration.

"I can see that."

She couldn't help the irritated bristling of her neck feathers, but exhaled slowly, smoothing them back down after the fact.

"I know what I look like." She muttered, looking down to glare at the sharp-beaked reflection looking up at her.

Shun jumped to her feet.

"Great!" She chirped, "Onto the next step!"

 _What the fuck?_

"Here, check out your reflection over here."

Kuroko obediently hopped over, looking down at the distorted ripples that only sometimes formed a crow.

"Now, that's still your reflection, right?"

Kuroko shot her a look, but nodded.

"So if that reflection is 'You' and the other reflection is also 'You', what's different?"

That weirdly sweet teacherly voice was definitely starting to rub on her nerves.

Or maybe she was just hungry.

"Water pressure?"

That damn tail flick again.

"Hmmm~ Almost, not quite, but close. It's the movement of the water, yeah, but also the light bouncing off of it. If you twist the surface a bit, the image changes. Both the reflections are 'you', but the real you doesn't have four heads, does it?"

Kuroko was silent, waiting for Shun to get to the point already.

"Get it?"

 _Fuck_ you.

"Yes, I get it."

"Good! Now you just need to make your form twist around a bit. It's still 'you', but different!"

 _Oh, that's all, huh?_

"Ohkaaaaaayyyy?"

Shun didn't take the hint, or ignored it, and trotted back to her grass.

"Well, get to it. Keep an eye out for hawks. I'll be taking a nap 'till you get it right."

 _Get WHAT right? You haven't explained anything!_

Kuroko exhaled slowly again, digging her talons into the grass and staring down at her rippling reflection. How on earth was she supposed to spontaneously become something else?!

 _Maybe it was about visualization?_

She tried imagining herself as a fox. Probably all black, with nice white teeth to growl with. She missed having teeth.

Her mind drifted back to her human life, a flicker of brief moments splashing around in a pool, seeing a fox dart across the road, laying in the grass and watching the clouds. She blinked, trying to concentrate on the rippling reflection.

Boredom picked at her mind.

She looked at Shun, who looked convincingly asleep.

This… was going to take a while.

And it did.

She was getting pretty good with those predictions, she really ought to stop predicting such pessimistic futures.

The sun set, with still no idea what she was supposed to be doing. As crickets started chirping in earnest (and frogs - she was definitely going to eat one of those) Shun woke up from her 'nap' and asked if she had made any progress.

At her negative response, the fox didn't seem surprised.

"You're probably just tired. Go get some rest back at the den."

Kuroko sighed, obediently heading back, and _finally_ grabbing a bite to eat before nestling herself in a tall, white-barked tree.

The next day was no different. Three different foxes sleepily watched her glare at her reflection, basically repeating Shun's words back at her whenever she asked for help.

 _You're still you, just give up the outside and look like something else, Right, she'll just DO that._

With zero progress and mounting frustration, Kuroko slept the next night a bit closer to the ground, tucked almost petulantly against the pale trunk.

She woke up in the middle of the night, not sure exactly what had roused her. Oh shit, there! A human yell echoed through the forest, close enough to tell where the direction was coming from.

A quick check didn't find any foxes around their clearing, or visible from the entrance to the den.

She heard a sharp clang of metal, and a splintery crack that could have been wood breaking. Her heart picked up.

Kuroko jumped into the air, following the sounds through the moonlit night. Several thin trails of smoke drifted up through the forest a few minutes ahead, and she flew a bit faster. It was probably foolish, but she was _tired_ of being crushingly bored, and this was the first interesting thing that had happe-

 _Oh_.

She slowed down, wheeling around and landing in a battered-looking tree on the edge of a large cliffside. The river became rapids, in this direction, sloping off into a deep canyon of bare rock. It might have been a beautiful landmark during the day, but all Tricia could see was the bodies.

Dozens- no, Hundreds. Hundreds of bodies, strewn across the rocks, blood seeping to mix with puddles from the rapid's mist. Weapons lay scattered, gleaming in the moonlight. The faces of the dead were- no. Tricia averted her eyes.

Beyond the ridge of the canyon, the yells and metallic noises were much louder, and it didn't take a genius to recognize the roar of a large-scale battle.

She swallowed, turning slightly in preparation to leave. She didn't need to be here.

A small figure darted across the rocks, and she paused.

A… child?

The little human ran across a small stream of water, dodging between the splayed bodies of the dead. Tricia watched, holding her breath without really thinking about it.

That poor kid.

No one should see this kind of slaughter first hand. Hell, _SHE_ shouldn't be seeing it. It was… disturbing.

The child slowed to a walk, and she could see the whites of its eyes, even from this distance. Her heart twisted.

Several plumes of dust shot up from beyond the canyon ridge. She could feel the thunderous shaking of the ground from where she perched, but the kid just stood there, staring down at what she could only hear.

More rumbles, and a flash like fire lighting up the child's silhouette.

 _Damn it._

Tricia slid off her branch, swooping low and flapping her way over the blood-strewn ridge. The child - a boy - looked down at her when she landed on a stone next to him, but didn't otherwise react.

She looked up into wide black eyes, framed by dark hair.

Together, they watched the bloody battle rage on through the night.

As the first pinks started bleeding into the sky, the child whispered something she couldn't hear.

Tricia gripped the stone beneath her a bit harder, and lowered her head a fraction. The foxes would be expecting her back at the den. The kid seemed safe, out of the way of the combatants.

She twisted her head around, plucking out a small black feather that was already coming loose, and let it fall to the ground between them.

With a tight feeling still in her gut, she took off and headed back into the forest.

She didn't see the child kneel down, delicately picking up the black feather and slipping it into a pocket.


	9. Kokoro

Kokoro was the second daughter of the first crow demon. She was tasked with protecting the Southern Roost - a colony where crow demons would grow and live, coming together to breed and raise their young. A small glen of marshy woodland, just off the coast.

They were happy and prosperous, for a long while.

News came of one of the human villages, and their success in finding the demonic script that could seal a bijuu. Frightened by the possibility of another Ten-Tails, she directed her Roost to work with the other demons, to eliminate that knowledge.

In the midst of the attack, an out-of-season typhoon hit the coast. It ravaged the city, and drove inland. Too far inland.

When she returned to the Roost, there was nothing but shattered wood and battered reeds. In the broken pieces of her home, her heart broke with it.

Ashamed that she had failed to protect her subjects, she sent them up to join with the Northern Roost, and cast herself out of the flock. She lived solitarily for many years, acting as a forest guardian, keeping the peace between other lesser demons as a messenger and neutral third party. It took a while for them to stop referring to her with royal suffixes.

She didn't deserve any title, after all.

Eventually, she got word that her sister had been killed, after she had led the flock to a village that had been encroaching on their long-established territory. One of her old subjects had hunted her down to inform her of the fact, and invited her back.

Refusing the invitation to leadership, Kokoro decided to have a child, to carry on her legacy and take over the northern Roost. Someone who was unsullied by her failure.

But the child was Kuroko.

And Kuroko did not inherit a measure of her mother's memories, as a full-blooded demon should have.

Kuroko did not mature to adulthood as soon as she hatched, nor did she instinctively know how to feel for Chakra, or the shadows, which were their birthright. She ate physical food when hungry, matured like a mortal bird, shed feathers like a mortal bird... She had to learn to fly, and train her muscles like they were actual tissues, and learned so slowly it was almost physically painful to watch. Compared to the countless young crow demons she had helped raise in the Southern Roost, she wondered if the other dead eggs of her clutch should have clued her into what was coming.

But…

Kuroko was so _happy_ when she succeeded at the silliest things, and turned to look at her mother for approval. She did try her best, and purred with happiness whenever Kokoro gave her the slightest affection.

She was a wonderful daughter.

Kokoro loved her.

Her blood was pure, yet the girl's heart seemed more mortal than demon.

She could not lead the Roost.

She resented her daughter, for that.

And then hated herself for thinking it. Hated herself even more, when she gave into the anger and lashed out with words meant to punish.

The self hatred manifested as an injury, as spiritual wounds did for her kind. Every time her daughter struggled with something she should have been born knowing, Kokoro felt a flicker of that resentment, or anger, and the corresponding blade of pain shooting across her foot when it inevitably morphed into self disgust.

If she let it grow any bigger, it might spread to more important areas.

Steeling herself, Kokoro turned the occasional visits to help with border patrols at the Northern Roost into a steady return, easing back into the flock. They seemed to accept her without a problem, but she knew trying to grab for power so suddenly after refusing for so long would not go over well.

She left Kuroko to the wolves more often than not, telling her to practice this and that, trying to get her daughter's body strong enough to survive as a crow, if not a demon.

And then the Northern Roost seemed to be invaded in earnest, and she had to help them. Unsure if she'd even return, Kokoro quickly instructed Kuroko on Shadow Listening, trying to hide the deep relief she felt when the girl was able to grasp it.

The crow demons were mobilized, and she sent her daughter to the Foxes, in the hopes she would struggle through the journey and grow on her own.

She didn't have much hope.

By the time Kokoro got back to the Northern Roost, the human invaders had already been pushed back. They didn't even put up much of a fight, and she had the sinking feeling they had only been scouts to guage their power - that the worst was yet to come. Still, she organized patrols and ensured her crows would have their eyes throughout their land, whispers coordinated through the shadows.

They seemed receptive to her, and one of the older crows straight up asked if she would step up to lead the clan or not. Kokoro sidestepped the question, buying herself a little more time.

Her sister's Roost, and what was left of her old Roost - they needed her. They needed the guidance, and someone to organize them. But so did her daughter, and she knew the girl wouldn't survive a week under the criticizing gaze of a flock that expected any offspring of hers to be their next leader. If she showed weakness - WHEN she showed weakness, they'd revolt - both against her daughter, and against herself.

The gods wouldn't curse the child of a good leader, after all. It was already a risk, letting the wolves and foxes know about her. Thankfully, they seemed to accept her.

With the potential of a full invasion on the horizon, she didn't have much of a choice.

She had step in to take her sister's place, and leave her daughter behind.

Her heart was still heavy when she slid through the shadows, to the tall pine tree that marked the fox's territory. Her daughter was unusually solemn, and seemed fine not talking. That was good, she didn't want to do this in front of the foxes. They at least, still had faith in her, if not in her child. She did not miss the scornful looks they shot at Kuroko's back, when she had asked how the girl's training had gone.

 _Not well,_ they said. _No progress._

Somehow, the news couldn't even make her feel worse than she already did.

She pulled Kuroko through the shadows, back to their nest.

Kuroko seemed as troubled as she was at the verdict, and sat quietly down in a nest that was far too small to hold the both of them. Still, Kokoro squished in, laying her head across her daughter's warm back.

"I met a boy, yesterday."

 _Oh?_

Kokoro closed her eyes, humming to show she was listening.

"He was on a battlefield, and looked frightened, so I sat by him for a while. Before I left, I dropped a feather."

Her heart sank a bit further at the reminder of the strange mortal quirks her daughter possessed.

"But… as soon as he picked it up, it was like...I could sense it again? Like it was still a part of me, a bit further away."

….!

Kokoro pulled her head up, tilting it to look at her daughter's curious face. The girl ducked her head at the intense look.

"Can you still feel it?" She asked, trying to be casual, instead of the urgent hope that she felt blooming in her breast.

Kuroko nodded, staring into the middle distance.

"It's… somewhere far west, and a bit south, I think. I think the boy keeps fiddling with it."

Kokoro closed her eyes again, sending out a quiet thanks to a storm god she hadn't quite forgiven yet. If she could separate a piece of herself and still _sense it as herself_ , then there was hope yet.

Slow and steady, but Kokoro might make a passable demon out of her yet.

"You sound curious?"

Kuroko nodded at the question, still staring in the direction of her lost feather.

"Would you like to find that boy again?"

She looked up, startled.

"...may I? I thought you wanted me to keep training…"

Kokoro gently moved some of the girl's tail feathers back into alignment, quietly wondering how on earth she flew straight, with her main rudder constantly shifting out of place.

"It could be considered training." She said, not technically lying. Technically was the best kind of correct, for a race who could not speak a falsehood.

"I think it would be good for you." _That_ was true.

Kuroko looked excited at the prospect, and Kokoro sighed, laying her head back down on the crow's back.

Thank goodness for small mercies.

"We'll have a nice breakfast in the morning, and I'll Shadow-jump us closer to your feather."

The excitement changed to a thoughtful look, with a vaguely concerned squint. She waited for the inevitable question.

"What should I actually… _do_ when I get there?"

"Find the boy." She answered softly. "Get him to help you sense more feathers at a time. Eventually, you should be able to become one with a lost feather, at any distance. Don't worry about the time it takes, I'll pop in to check on you, and you can always call for me in the shadows."

Her daughter made a surprised sound.

"That doesn't sound like shadow jumping."

Kokoro hummed, letting her shadows melt out between her feathers, curling around her child. The trick always managed to get the girl drifting to sleep.

"No, it's not shadow jumping."

 _But it was a start._


	10. Chapter 10

Tracking her feather, Kuroko discovered, was a lot more difficult than just focusing and flying blindly in that direction. Well, that was the gist of it, but the practice of doing so involved a lot of struggling against headwinds and squinting against the sun.

It probably also didn't help that as soon as she seemed to make progress in catching up to the lost little peice of her wing, it seemed to jump even further away. After breakfast with her mother, the crow had just dropped her up in a guesstimated range to where Kuroko sensed her feather. Since then, it had changed locations four times, and continued to move faster than her wings could carry her.

She strongly suspected that her ability to track that damn feather was completely out of wack.

Thankfully, it appeared to head in the same general direction, and she eventually found a road to follow. Several days passed again in travel, alternately mentally complaining about the soreness of her wings and wondering how the heck it could get so far away overnight. That was several days too many, in her opinion. Why couldn't life changing adventures be easier?

No, that was probably the point of them. Make you sweat and ache enough that your brain started to think anything else was wonderful and perfect. It was brainwashing.

She flew over several caravans, in varying states of attended. During one particularly stormy evening, Kuroko opted to land on the edge of a covered wagon, shuffling sideways until she was tucked out of the rain.

A wide-eyed pair of chilren watched her from their mother's arms, while the woman looked significantly less pleased to see her. Kuroko curiously watched her chant something over and over again, before deciding it wasn't any of her business, and stared out at the rainy road instead.

As the hours pressed on, the children became less fearful, and approached the wagon's clothed opening to peer at her. Kuroko really wasn't much for children in general, and just stayed crouched where she sat, puffed up against the damp cold.

She only hissed at them when one of the kids tried petting her back, and the damp skin pulled her feathers uncomfortably. They left her alone after that, and as soon as the clouds cleared, she dove off into the misty morning.

The feather seemed to sotp moving around, after that, and she followed it southwest until the trees grew… uncomfortably tall.

Kuroko stopped, landing on a huge bough and wondering when exactly the trees had become so big that a man could wrap his arms around a branch and not touch his fingers. She looked around, noting that the bushes and general undergrowth had not gotten proportionally bigger, just the trees.

Something about them…

Something about the trees didn't quite feel like the forests she had grown up in. They felt… more present, somehow.

Shaking off the feeling, Kuroko flew onward, until a huge wall came into view. It was the rich color of red-orange clay, with some sort of tower periodically along the top. What made it more impressive was the sheer size of it - the top of it easily rose out of the unnaturally huge trees in the area. Kurako marveled at the wall, as she flew over it.

Ahead, a huge city sprawled out before her. The red-clay color dotted most of the steep rooftops, infrequently clashing with green or blue tiles, all atop what must have been white adobe. Trees grew up between buildings, and telephone wires were strung between all of it, in a naturalistic hodgepodge of buildings and nature.

She was almost starting to see a pattern to it - there were city blocks, and in the far distance a red tower rose above all other buildings.

And then her face was full of feathers and claws.

Kuroko screached, lashing out with her own claws, flailing and getting a lucky peck right in the eye of some sort of bird of prey. It released her in a flinch, and she winged her ass the hell out of there. Kuroko heard, more than saw, the hawk attempting to pursue her. Its wings easily dwarfed her own, and it was probably only dumb luck that let those grasping talons seize onto feathers rather than flesh.

Kurko ducked between trees, using her shorter wingspan as best she could in the wide branches, until she could duck into some shadows and hold her breath.

Seriously, that's all she could think to do.

Thankfully, the hawk did pass her by, auburn feathers streaked with gold as sunlight dappled it through the leaves above.

A very pretty bird.

Also, she hated it.

It circled the area several times, and Kuroko had to shuffle to another branch so it didn't catch a glimpse of her, but eventually the hawk turned back to the walls and flew inside.

Kuroko hissed a soft breath of relief. Her back ached where the claws had pulled a few feathers out, but she was otherwise fine. That one feather still rang in the back of her mind, more important than any other lost bit of wing.

 _Alright, so just waltzing in wasn't an option._

Her next attempt was much more successful.

Kuroko sweapt in along the shadows of one of the stocky towers, diving down and throwing herself into a scraggly tree while the wide-winged patrol hawk ( _what the hell?)_ passed overhead. She stayed on the ground after that, hopping through the dust, pecking at random shit if anyone seemed to be looking her way.

Kuoko continued to flutter and hop her way along the streets until she was deep enough into the city that ( _hopefully_ ) a hawk wouldn't take her for an intruder. Or a meal. The feather seemed to be moving again, thankfully at a much slower pace than before.

She flew up to land on a fence, and then a bit further to peer out over the city from atop a telephone pole. (Or was it an electricity pole? She couldn't tell the difference.)

It was strange, seeing a city after being fairly alone in the woods for so long. She didn't realize she'd miss the way fatty smoke smelled, or the shiny sheen of silken fabric.

When her eyes were drawn to a woman's sparkling bracelet, it ocurred to her that maybe that was the crow part of her brain speaking. Food, and shiny things.

Kuroko shook her head, focusing again and perking up when the feather appeared to be heading her way.

She focused down at the crowd, black eyes picking through the variety of people, all talking or peering at interesting things, or wandering seemingly aimlessly. Her heart quickened in her chest as the feather got closer and closer, until she saw the mop of black hair, and dark eyes staring up at a similarly colored woman. Well, that's where he got his cute face.

She flicked her tail happily, delighted that he had kept the feather on him, instead of leaving it on a shelf somewhere, or tossing it to the ground once it wasn't interesting anymore. Then again, the kid was the type to carry groceries with ( _apparently_ ) his mother. Maybe he wouldn't throw things like that away?

She watched them shop, getting an eyeful of other townsfolk while she was at it, and took a long several minutes to stare longingly at a stand that sold fried vegetables and meat skewers. Her mouth didn't even produce much saliva, but she could swear she was salivating over it. The man who ran the stall put on a bit of a show for some passerby, tossing up vegetables and meat, flaring his stove with bright tongues of flame. She could smell the juices cooking, and mourned the loss of her ability to buy food.

….Wait a second…

She checked on the boy and his mother (?), then scanned the area for shiny things once more.

There!

Kuroko swooped down, clutching a small silver coin in her hand, and then flapping back up to her pole to look at it.

….and… it had… letters?

She felt her feathers droop.

Whatever language these humans used, it definitely wasn't English. Or Spanish, though her understanding of that was barely elementary-level. Well crap. Kuroko stared at the frier guy, before shrugging her wings and opening them.

Didn't hurt to try.

As soon as she swooped in past the hanging cloth, into the empty stall, the man started waving his arms at her, saying the half-yelled equivalent of 'shoo!'

When she held up her foot and clumsily dropped the coin on the table, he stared at her for a long moment. Then, with a small head-shake, he plucked some of the raw meat still on the edge of his cutting board, and headed her way.

She quickly cawed, bobbing her head desperately toward the fried meats, eager for the taste of rendered fat and seasonings after so long of eating mice and bugs and berries.

"If you get sick, don't come crawling back to me." He muttered, but obligingly set a piece of cooked meat on a small peice of paper, and set it out for her.

Kuroko happily hopped over the slippery counter, plucking a small peice of it off and gulping it down, purring at the familiar taste of garlic and ginger, trying to savor it as long as possible. She didn't even notice when someone else ducked into the tent, and boggled at her presence.

"Letting birds in here, Riken-san? You know you won't get customers if they think your stall is dirty."

The man laughed as his new customer sat down - well away from the crow - and slid her silver coin off the counter.

"Crow-san IS a paying customer, though~" The man grinned, and pocketed the coin. Kuroko paused to croak in agreement, before wolfing down the rest of her meat.

 _Ahhh~ totally worth it~_

Kuroko didn't hear the rest of their conversation, quick to leave the stall and follow after her feather-boy. In the few minutes she left them, the pair had made it several blocks, heading toward a stately looking home. A familiar red and white symbol was painted on their door, but she couldn't quite remember what it was supposed to mean. _A family crest?_

She fluttered up to a windowsill, sensing the feather moving around the house, but unable to track exactly where. Finally, the boy seemed to settle in one corner, and Kuroko swooped around to alight on HIS window instead.

He had already spotted her before she tapped on the window with her beak, and was already moving to open it.

"Am I being summoned?"

 _What an odd question_.

She tilted her head, glancing down toward the pocket that she could sense her feather from. It kinda… pulsed, a little. The pattern seemed to match a heartbeat, but it was too slow to be hers. He seemed to realize something, and pulled a slim black feather from his pocket.

"Oh… This is yours, right? Did you want it back?" It was visibly worse for wear, but still in one piece.

"Not really."

Kuroko flicked her tail, wondering how she could mime this. He probably didn't understand animals.

"Are you a nin-crow?"

She tilted her head, then shook it negative. What an odd question...but… waitasecond.

"You can understand me?"

His face stayed in a neutral expression that really felt off-putting, on a child's body. Shouldn't they be little balls of emotion?

"Right, I uh, yeah, that's my feather, but I'm kinda hoping you use it as training...or something. If you wouldn't mind…." Crap, she wasn't used to talking to people she didn't know. The awkward words kinda just flowed.

"I'm still training. I didn't think I'd still be able to sense my feather once I dropped it - but after you touched it, I can still sense it! I guess that's a good sign, and my mother told me to try and practice to get better at it. I'd really appreciate if you helped me out." _Shut up shut up you'll scare him_.

He considered her words for a long moment, before sliding the feather gently back into his pocket. She squinted happily at his nonverbal acceptance, and dipped her head in a sort of bow.  
 _Thank god I don't have to keep talking, that was a disaster._

"My name's Kuroko! Nice to meet you!"

The boy reflexively dipped his head back, dark bangs brushing his cheeks and falling in front of his eyes.

 **"Nice to meet you, Kuroko-san. My name is Uchiha Itachi."**


	11. Chapter 11

_"My name is Uchiha Itachi"_

Kuroko froze, heart skipping.

 _She knew that name_.

That was the guy who was supposed to hunt down the tailed bijuu - Akatsuki.

That was the guy who became an elite ninja at an absurdly young age, and eventually slaughtered his clan to 'Prove himself'. Oh geeze, this was not what she signed up for.

Right now he was a little kid, but that said basically nothing, since apparently he was trained from the moment they could walk.

"Did you follow me back, Kuroko-san? I asked, and no one here knows anything about a Crow summoning contract."

Kuroko, tried to keep her mounting alarm under control.

"Y-yeah, Like I said, I'm still training, and you were my best lead, so…"

 _Crap she didn't think this through_.

The young Itachi hummed, and nodded.

"I'd be alright training with you."

 _...Eh?_

"But I have one last errand to do, if that's alright."

Kuroko nodded quickly, hopping backward and flying to a nearby tree when the boy opened his window further and hopped up onto the sill.

He landed on the ground with far more grace than should be natural for a child, and lifted his arm in offering.

 _Oh geeze._

Kurko fluttered down obligingly, trying to be as careful as possible not to dig her claws into his arm. He didn't wince, or look strained, but Kuroko still shuffled sideways, moving to sit on his shoulder. Her mind was still racing - was she early enough to do anything about this? Was it even possible to change the fate of so many people? Could her influence even be enough?

Why was she even assuming that she'd get involved?

 _Those are lives…_

Yeah, but she was just a bird. Plus, she didn't know how accurate the manga actually was, in telling the story of a bunch of ninja. Was Itachi actually the key player here, or did they just use his image to do the deed, forcing him to leave the village? (She had wondered about that. Everyone kept saying it wasn't like him - totally unexpected. Surely they had psyche evals or something that would catch a hint.)

Ahhh, but Manga was weird, and sometimes people just revealed themselves as evil all of the sudden.

 _But this was real. Itachi is right here, a real person_.

Was he, though?

Kuroko looked around as Itachi walked down the streets, catching a few people glancing at her curiously. That was a line of thinking she didn't really want to pursue. If Itachi wasn't real, then… Well, she wasn't going to think about it. This was real. This world was real.

Whether or not the Manga accurately described the history of this village was another issue. She'd figure it out later.

She wobbled as he lifted his arm, pushing open a door, and tried not to smack him with a wing to get her balance. Kuroko looked at the lettering on the door, feeling foolish when she reaffirmed that no, she still could not read this language.

 _Shit_.

Feeling a bit foolish, she scanned the room, trying to figure out what they were here for, with context clues. It seemed like a normal office entranceway, to be honest. Large wooden desks, tasteful wall scrolls instead of paintings, some plants huddled by the windows. A few people hunched over paperwork, giving them cursory glances as they entered. Maybe he was here to deliver another message?

"Good afternoon, Yamanaka-san."

 _Hello familiar name_.

Kuroko looked across the desk Itachi stood in front of, blinking up at the much taller blonde man. _What intense eyes you have~_

She watched curiously as Itachi pulled out her feather, placing it on the table in front of him. She could still feel the pulse of it faintly, but wondered what he was doing.

"Kuroko-san gave me this feather while at the border three days ago, and appeared at my window this morning, claiming to have tracked me with it."

 _Well when he said it like that…_

Kuroko shifted slightly on the boy's shoulder, noting with unease that the other humans in the room had focused in on her.

Maybe this hadn't been a great idea…

She eyed the window, wondering if it was thin enough that she could just break out, or if she'd be lucky enough that someone would open the door. The name _Yamanaka_ was jiggling at her memory, trying to remember exactly why she should be wary of him. All she could think of was a girl with matching blonde hair, and a noisy rivalry with a pink-haired girl named Sakura.

One moment she was staring out the window, and the next she was squawking unhappily, pinned to the ground with light flaring up around her. Yamanaka made a sign with the hand not clamped around her wings, and the world went dark.

Kuroko woke up with an awful sort of headache that didn't seem limited to just her head. Like the unhappy marriage of a throbbing migraine and a full-body illness. She squinted against the sunlight coming in through chainlink-covered glass, closing them again when light sensitivity became too much.

 _Did someone get the number of the train that hit me?_

She groaned softly, dragging herself up onto her feet, hunching her neck against the uncomfortable light. She could hear the noises of other creatures in the room, and the scrape of metal against her claws.

She cracked open an eye, the throbbing in her head getting a little stronger.

Rows of cages stacked up along the walls, mostly empty. Some, however, contained other animals. A tan-colored songbird peered down at her from a higher cage across from her, while a mottled black and grey lizard sprawled across the floor of its own cage, black tongue flicking out at her from its lazy position.

"Any news from the frontlines?"

The little sparrow-like bird had exactly the voice she had expected, and somehow that made her feel better. It was... chirpy.

She hummed, grimacing against a small spike of pain that slid down the back of her spine.

"What's your country, crow?"

The songbird fluffed up, apparently irritated that she was ignoring it.

Dully, Kuroko recalled that this was a ninja village.

If that was Itachi, on the edge of the battlefield, then... Konoha was at war, wasn't it?

And she had just strolled up and admitted she had stalked someone back from a battlefield, and then snuck into the village…

 _I'm an idiot._


	12. Chapter 12

_**TACTICAL INTERROGATION REPORT**_

 _NAME OF PRISONER: KUROKO (34119)_

 _INTERROGATOR: YAMANAKA SACHIRO_

 _CATEGORY: C_

 _INTG REPORT NO: 4832739_

 _ **SECTION I**_

 _A. CAPTURE DATA_

 _Captive Tag Number: 3887 Capturing Unit: UCHIHA ITACHI, TO YAMANAKA INOICHI_

 _Data/Time of Capture: AUGUST 11, 1430 HOURS_

 _Place of Capture: T &I DEPT. CIVILIAN OFFICE 3 _

_Circumstances of Capture: PRISONER 34119 PRESENTED SELF TO CIVILIAN UCHIHA ITACHI. ADMITTED TO TRACKING CIVILIAN UCHIHA ITACHI FROM BATTLE OF FUKURODA FALLS, INFILTRATING VILLAGE WALLS. CIVILIAN UCHIHA ITACHI BROUGHT PRISONER 34119 TO CIVILIAN OFFICE 3, WHERE JOUNIN CHIEF OF INTERROGATION YAMANAKA INOICHI SUBDUED PRISONER 34119._

 _Documents Captured / Disposition: NONE_

 _Equipment Captured / Disposition: NONE_

 _B. BIOGRAPHIC INFORMATION_

 _CROW, KUROKO, PRISONER 34119_

 _BORN: NORTHEAST KONOHA, APRIL_

 _FEMALE, NO PARTNER, NO RELIGION_

 _CROW, CHAKRA+, UNCONTRACTED_

 _VAGUE MOTIVE – SUSPECTED SPY, POSSIBLE SLEEPER AGENT_

 _C. ASSESSMENT OF INTELLIGENCE VALUE:_

 _BELOW-AVERAGE INTELLIGENCE, LIMITED EXPERIENCE DUE TO AGE. COOPERATIVE, UNRELIABLE MEMORY. REFERENCES UNFAMILIAR LOCAL TECHNOLOGY, AND PEOPLE WHO ARE NOT REGISTERED CITIZENS OF KONOHA UNDER ASSUMPTION OF AVAILABILITY._

 _SHADOW-RELATED SPECIALIZATION. INSTANT TRANSPORTATION, COMMUNICATION, POSSIBLE_

 _NO APPARENT LOYALTY._

 _Note: sweep genin ranks for possible sleeper agents, using descriptions mentioned. Full descriptions in [SECTION III.C.2]_

 _D. ITEMS CARRIED AT TIME OF CAPTURE:_

 _List of Documents: NONE_

 _Details of money and valuables: NONE_

 _Personal Equipment: NONE_

 _Weapons: PHYSIOLOGICAL ATTRIBUTES, BEAK, CLAWS._

 _INTERROGATOR RECOMMENDATION: FOSTER CONNECTIONS. CLOSELY MONITOR, SEARCH FOR POSSIBLE TRIGGER. DO NOT ALLOW OUTSIDE CONTACT._

 _[CONTINUED PG. 2]_

Itachi looked up from the report, meeting Yamanaka-san's stern eyes. The papers were crisp, with the faint smell of fresh ink. Handwritten answers to dozens of standard interrogation questions pressed faint intents into the thick paper, and he had only browsed the first page.

"You're releasing custody of her?"

He nodded, expression unchanging.

"Whatever she came here to do, it starts with you. I've briefed your parents, and they know to expect a guest. Keep an eye on her. If she presents herself as a danger, do not engage."

If Itachi was anyone else, he may have straightened at the reminder. As it was, he simply looked back down to the papers, continuing to read through. Inoichi stood by patiently, aware the boy could not leave the room with a copy.

"Should I treat this as an official mission, sir?"

The man hummed.

"No. Your parents have this. We're only sharing the interrogation report because you will be so closely involved. Ask them if you require help. Do not allow the prisoner to believe you suspect her. She appears…gullible."

Inoichi glanced down at the papers in Itachi's small fingers. It was fairly normal to treat young children as competent adults, but the boy was still too young for him to be strictly comfortable with it. He hadn't entered the Academy yet, yet had already displayed startling levels of intelligence and growth potential.

No need to alienate a potential rising star.

...and if the boy burned out (which was also likely, considering the statistics associated with such growth of numbers), he'd also be in a position to interfere.

The boy nodded, finishing up reading the file. (eerily fast, as always)

"You'll be asked to keep of journal of your activities together, and anything you notice about suspicious behaviors or comments."

"Yes sir."

"And…"

Itachi blinked, not used to the older man showing any sort of hesitancy in his demeanor. It was probably a calculated move.

"Be careful, Itachi-kun."

He furrowed his brows. What an odd thing to pause over.

"Yes sir." he repeated, bowing slightly as he offered the papers back.

Inoichi turned and slid them onto his desk, exchanging the manilla envelope for a slightly battered leather journal, offering it to the young clan heir.

"Good luck."

Kuroko woke groggily each morning, stretching her wings as much as she could inside the cramped cage. She had lost track of time after several days, but the rituals of questioning and small offers of food kept most of her boredom away.

Her attempts at initiating Shadow Listening were immediately countered. The slightest pull on her Chakra resulted in seals flaring to life along the bars of her cage, and across the surfaces. If activated for too long, the warning lights started sending unpleasant and rapidly-escalating jolts of electricity. No dice.

A few animals were exchanged during her time in the room, all of which seemed, when asked, to be of different nationalities. A tall, white stork from 'Kiri', a pissy green viper from 'Iwa' and some sort of… giant rat/guinea-pig/porcupine looking thing from 'Kumo'. She really didn't know WHAT it was. It had a hazy sort of outer fur, and a dense underfur, and a ridiculously long tail. Kuroko DID know that it made rude comments about her ruffled feathers, and sneered whenever a human entered the room.

She had seen a few other blue flashes activate, and never could help her sympathetic flinch as one particularly stubborn rabbit kept getting himself zapped as he tried to strongarm his way through the bars. He hadn't given up until his fur had actually started to burn, and even after that kept trying regularly.

No thanks, one zappy warning was enough for her.

Likewise, she appeared to come out fairly unscathed, compared to some. Apparently as long as you answered questions as promptly and honestly as you could, they were fairly lenient. Happy interrogators did not break out the physical tools.

That rabbit really couldn't catch a break. She wondered why he was so adamant about trying to escape. They provided square meals, and the other animals here tended not to be overly noisy. If it weren't so cramped, it could be decent living. (Kuroko was well aware that her other-life's years in public schools had probably warped her idea of what 'decent' The faint dread of unending repetition and crawling boredom was nothing new.)

"He's an Iwa rabbit." the songbird bit out, looking disdainful. "He'll break soon."

Kuroko gave the bird a thoughtful look, watching as the rabbit thrashed in yet another painful round of test-the-seals.

"Trying to get information back...or something?"

The other bird snorted. (adorably. Everything she did seemed adorable. Maybe Kuroko just had a soft spot for tiny birds) "As if you don't know."

The room quieted when the main door suddenly opened, seals stopping them from anticipating a visitor by sound or smell. A familiar man in plain clothes strode to Kuroko's cage, barking the familiar demand to 'Lay down, away from the bars'.

She obliged, and steadied herself as her cage was lifted up.

Great.

Another round.

She sighed, not even looking back as she was swept out of the room. Yep, there was the black cloth covering her cage. Kuroko closed her eyes, letting herself feel the slight swing in momentum.

Something…. Tugged at her senses.

She tilted her head, trying to concentrate on it.

The walk was taking quite a bit longer than she was used to, but that could be for any number of reasons. What _was_ that thing?

Her cage jarred slightly as it was set down on a hard surface, and Kuroko kept her eyes closed as the black cloth was pulled off. Something warmed her feathers.

She opened her eyes, blinking and squinting and looking down at her feathers as they shone faintly green.

Oh.

That was sunlight.

This wasn't the interrogation room.

There was wood walls, and her cage was set upon a wooden desk, not the metal table she had grown to expect. She could see the Yamanaka who had first brought her here, and the one who did most of the questioning.

Uchiha Itachi met her gaze from across the room, and she felt a flicker of hope.

 _She was sensing her feather…._.

"Kuroko-san." She looked up at the interrogator-yamanaka, having never been introduced to her actual name.

"We've prepared a contract. If you sign it, then you will be released into Uchiha-san's custody, and allowed to fly again."

Her interrogator made a hand sign, and blue symbols crawled down the silver bars. Then, she unlatched the cage and made a small beckoning motion.

Kurko stood up, walking out on legs that were more sore and creaky than they had any right to be.  
 _How long had she been in there?_

"Will you sign it?"

"You haven't even told me what it says."

None of them smiled at the joking complaint. Of course she would sign it. Not like she had a choice, at this point. Between the options of staying locked up, answering repetetive questions forever, and being allowed out - that was no contest. Even if they had weird restrictions or something.

Besides, her mother could probably just fly in and sweep her away into the shadows at any point. The seals had prevented her from reaching out, but the older crow was probably not happy that her daughter vanished off the face of the earth.

That confrontation would be entertaining.

Kuroko grimaced as the ninjas laid down a long, intricately scripted scroll.

On second thought, she really didn't want to put her mother into that position. She didn't know how well the crow's abilities would stack up against a shinobi's, and their sealing stuff seemed really freakin' effective.

"It will allow you to fly freely within Konoha, so long as you are accompanied by either Uchiha Mikoto, Uchiha Fugoku, or Uchiha Itachi. You will not attempt to contact anyone outside the village, nor will you attempt to leave the walls."

She expected that.

"The aforementioned Uchiha will provide you with food, housing, and other materials needed for you to live comfortably for an undetermined amount of time."

She perked up, squinting at the unrecognizable characters, as if it would help.

"Wait, will you EVER let me go?"

Kuroko stilled as the room became noticeably colder. Wrong question to ask.

"When the Uchihas believe you to no longer be a security threat, your case may be open to reconsideration."

 _May, not 'will'_

Kuroko swallowed. She… didn't really see any other option, at this point. She couldn't call her mother in the cage, nor could she try to fly around. The whole 'Itachi becoming a clan-killer' thing had been nagging at her brain as well, with nothing better to think about while cooped up.

This was… an opportunity, right?

She should think about it like that.

"Alright." she murmured.

It took a bit of balancing, but she left her ink-blotched footprint at the bottom of the scroll, next to three pairs of neat Kanji.

The scroll vanished with a poof of white smoke.

 _Of course it did_.

Itachi offered his arm


	13. Moving pains

**THIS STORY IS NOT ABANDONED**

Well, it kinda-sorta is, but this world isn't.

I've decided to rewrite this story, to be both painfully accurate to the Naruto canon timeline, and more faithful to the initial dream I had for these characters. There will be OCs instead of self-insert stuff, and lots more demons and politicky stuff and fun misunderstandings.

Good news? I've already re-written the parts I'm going to keep, AND have a solid continuation started. You've already got 18k to throw your time at. I think this version reads much smoother, makes more sense, and has a better long-term plan

 **You can find the rewritten version in my story's list under the title 'Flock Together, or on on Archiveofourown, under the same name.**


End file.
